About us

The Arts Catalyst commissions and produces new artists' projects that engage with science. We explore, generate and share ideas around art, science and society through exhibitions, events, conferences, workshops, publishing, education and research.

The Arts Catalyst's projects are shown in a range of venues and are often site-specific. Arts Catalyst's commissions have been shown at many international museums and galleries in the UK and internationally, as well as science institutions, outdoor sites and online.

In 2011, The Arts Catalyst opened a project space in Clerkenwell, London, where it runs a programme of screenings, talks, workshops, symposia, and occasional exhibitions, bringing together people from different disciplines to reflect and create new ideas and alternative perspectives on science and culture.

You can sign up to our mailing list, and receive regular updates and our International Art/Science Ebulletin.

We are a regularly funded client of Arts Council England and receive grants, fees and donations from many different sources.

Artists and projects are usually commissioned as a result of in-depth curatorial research. There are occasional open calls for submissions. To keep updated on these join our mailing list. Commissioning opportunities for unsolicited applications are extremely limited, as the vast majority of our projects are self-initiated. Opportunities to get involved with workshops and conferences are more common and enable relationships to develop.

No. The Arts Catalyst is a commissioning, not a funding, organisation. We raise funds and resources to enable the projects we commission.

We can provide occasional production and marketing internships, as well as work experience and volunteer opportunities. At the moment, there are no available production internships. If you are interested in a marketing internship, please email us.

There are links to reviews and articles at the bottom of most project pages.

The Arts Catalyst has worked with primary, secondary and special schools for many years. We currently do not have a regular schools programme, but if you are a school or teacher interested in working with us, please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We are also particularly interested in developing collaborations with groups and organisations working outside formal learning.

We are interested in working with people of all ages and backgrounds. We organise projects with families, informal learning groups, colleges of higher education, young people, older people, artists, scientists and others. We aim to enable curious minds to have new experiences and encounters, and creative learning opportunities, that transcend the traditional boundaries of art and science.

This ranges significantly between projects. Some artists have created in-depth, long-term partnerships with particular scientists and these collaborations are critical to their work, for example the artist Brandon Ballengee who undertakes primary biological research as part of his artistic practice. Others do their own amateur scientific research or use scientific processes, having occasional contact or collaborations with professional scientists.

Some artists undertake residencies in science organisations or have become part of a interdisciplinary research group, such as the Gravity Zero project with choreographer Kitsou Dubois and the Biodynamics Group at Imperial College. And then there are artists who do not work directly with scientists at all, but are interested in the cultural milieu of science or in the relationship of science to society. What the Arts Catalyst asks is that an artist's project experimentally or critically engages with science and our technoscientific culture, and this process can take many forms.

This list will be added to, but it will get you started ...

ARTS CATALYST ARTICLES

Essays and articles by the Arts Catalyst's Director, Nicola Triscott and Curator, Rob La Frenais. 

BOOKS

Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians, Brandon Ballengée, Eds. Nicola Triscott & Miranda Pope. Publisher: The Arts Catalyst, 2010

Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience, Ed. Beatriz da Costa. Publisher: MIT Press

Seen | Unseen: Art, science, and intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble telescope, Martin Kemp. Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2006  

Zero Gravity: A Cultural User's Guide, Eds. Nicola Triscott & Rob La Frenais. Publisher: The Arts Catalyst, 2005

Art and Science, Sian Ede. Publisher: I.B. Tauris, 2005

Experiment: Conversations in Art and Science, Ed. Bergit Arends. Publisher: The Wellcome Trust, 2003

Strange and Charmed: Science and the Contemporary Visual Arts, Ed. Sian Ede. Publisher: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2000 

JOURNALS

Leonardo, the journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, Publisher: MIT Press 

ARTICLES

Art-Science, from public understanding to public experiment, Georgina Born & Andrew Barry, Journal of Cultural Economy, 3(1): 103-119

The Future of Science ... Is Art?, Jonah Lehrer, in SEED Magazine, 2008

This is a complex question and a vast arena of activity, of which The Arts Catalyst explores only particular aspects. Intersections between art and science could be said to include scientific procedures to preserve art objects, the scientific analysis of the process of art making and appreciation, consciousness studies, experimental art using science or technology, artistic critiques of science's role in society, art that uses science for inspiration, interdisciplinary disciplines that incorporate aspects of art and science (e.g. design, architecture).

The Arts Catalyst's particular interests are to encourage artistic and interdisciplinary experimentation, to contribute to a critical discourse between contemporary art and science-society issues, and to promote democratisation of science and technology through cultural educational strategies.